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The term "Grunge"

ForceofNature101ForceofNature101 Posts: 1,284
edited September 2010 in The Porch
A lot of people I have talked to are against the term "grunge" because it was coined by journalists to market the style and music of bands coming from Seattle in the early nineties.

But it's hard to deny that the bands coming out at the time did have a similar vibe to them. Sure the bands sounded different from each other, but you can feel the Seattle vibe to it.

What is your reason for being either for it or against the term?
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • I cant stand that term. Hate it.
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  • It definitely held a lot of bands down in my opinion.
  • TheVan218 wrote:
    It definitely held a lot of bands down in my opinion.
    How so? (Not necessarily disagreeing with you, just opening up the debate even further)
  • BlahBlah Posts: 469
    I hate the word grunge almost as much as I hate the word twitter.
  • aNiMaLaNiMaL Posts: 7,117
    I don't like the term because too many people think it is actually a genre of music, when in fact it isn't.
  • aNiMaL wrote:
    I don't like the term because too many people think it is actually a genre of music, when in fact it isn't.

    What it is then?
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  • fuckfuck Posts: 4,069
    Mr Rocko wrote:
    aNiMaL wrote:
    I don't like the term because too many people think it is actually a genre of music, when in fact it isn't.

    What it is then?
    an advertising tool
  • It's a cool word.
  • Mikee JMikee J Posts: 1,323
    As you can see, its a word that divides opinion and means different things to different people.

    For me it represents a time in my life when I lived it... 1990-1995 was the time I even called myself a grunger... long hair, knee length shorts, checked shirt and playing in a band that wholeheartedly wanted to be in Seattle.... which at the time was a long way from London England. I can actually remember telling people Grunge meant simply getting up in the morning and putting the same clothes on I wore the day before! I am sure that can also be applied to many other eras of music too......

    Very few, if any, musical movements coined their own genres or names to separate them from the rest... This period of time was no different.

    I would not worry about what other people think, just decide what it means to you and enjoy it.

    Is it still alive today? well, in my opinion not really. I put clean clothes on daily. ;)
    "My body's nobody's body but mine"
  • Grunge is Dead,pearl jam still play,lets celebrate!!! 8-)
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  • appieappie Posts: 1,441
    They called every band from Seattle a Grungeband after Nirvana,but is not a kind of music.It is just a shortminded term they give to every band that play rockmusic with a grey message.

    Only Pearl Jam lives on... :D
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  • "Can I tell you something? Can I tell you something about grunge? It has nothing to do with music. It just has to do with what's on your teeth. And you know what? I think grunge was invented here..."

    - Eddie Vedder, Slane Castle, Ireland, 10 July 1993


    Also, here at 4:06-4:12 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfcYb-HDvX8
    93: Slane
    96: Cork, Dublin
    00: Dublin
    06: London, Dublin
    07: London, Copenhagen, Nijmegen
    09: Manchester, London
    10: Dublin, Belfast, London & Berlin
    11: San José
    12: Isle of Wight, Copenhagen, Ed in Manchester & London x2
  • I was lucky enough to see the tour of Neil Young and Crazy Horse - "Rust Never Sleeps" where he played the Cow Palace in San Francisco, in October,1978, and hearing the term Grunge applied to Neils music during that period of time for his grungy guitar playing... that is what attracted me to Pearl Jam in the beginning as they had that same grungy guitar sound.
    So the term Grunge Music has been around at least since the late 1970's
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  • Gary CarterGary Carter Posts: 14,077
    grunge to me is just a word to define the 80's seattle punk scene from other punk scenes going on in america at that time

    i don't hate the word, i just hate labels
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  • BinauralJamBinauralJam Posts: 14,158
    i have no idea what it might really mean, but i can tell you what it ment to me.

    Grunge= Nirvana,Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Sound Garden,Screaming Trees, Etc.

    Music and Lyrics from the soul, about real emotions and real people, it was mostly ugly, angry, and pissed about the world, So was i.

    it was Rock, but not Heavy Metal, more like that deep soulful 70's Rock, before Kiss existed.

    and Most importantly, it was Death to the Hair Bands!!! No more Winger, Cinderella, Britney Fox, Nelson Twins or Warrent.

    I'd like to Thank REM and Tom Petty for holding me over in those horrible years between 1988 and 1991.

    So that's my Grunge Experiance, Really wish i went to that 94' Nirvana Show, thought there would be time enough in the future.

    Thank God for PJ, may not have been grunge since 10, but been the greatist band of my life time.
  • not this again. Grunge is a term that was coined by the media, yes. So are many musical genres, including the term Rock And Roll. Who cares who came up with it? Why does that matter? Yes, the music industry and fashion industry decided to capitalize on a market that was open, that has nothing to do with the term grunge.

    Some say it unfairly pigeonholed a lot of bands. You could say it also exponentially helped a lot of bands. You can't deny that there was a definite "sound" during that time period, and that's what grunge means. Are all the bands that came from that era and/or area grunge? Did all grunge bands have to come from Seattle? No. As grunge is defined, I don't believe that PJ necessarily fit. PJ was blues rock at the time. Neither did AIC. They were what I'd call sludge metal. Nirvana, Screaming Trees, Smashing Pumpkins, STP, Soundgarden, among many others, I'd call grunge.

    There were bands from my area, Winnipeg, that also laid claim to a lot of bands that were considered grunge; The Watchmen, The New Meanies, Leaderhouse, etc.

    Grunge is the correct term for a certain sound in that era.
    Gimli 1993
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    Winnipeg 2011
    St. Paul 2014
  • for me, i call Grunge as an era, but not a style of music...i've always had trouble finding a link between the sound of Pearl Jam, AIC, Nirvana, Soundgarden...they all sounded different to me with the only connection being that they were heavier rock music with angsty lyrics. The era includes the look and the lifestyle that these certain bands had. But when i refer to the network of bands that knew each other and for the most part enjoyed each other's company as "the Seattle sound."
  • I honestly don't get how people are against the term "Grunge" but they use terms like Alt. Rock, Glam, Hair Metal, etc. They were ALL penned for marketing. Hell even the term "Rock N' Roll' is a term used for marketing that style of music back in the 1950's and 1960's.
  • I believe Mark Arm is credited with coining this term when asked to describe the music one of his earlier bands played in the very early 80s. I think the term was only later applied to Neil as his music fit the sound the term was describing. I dont think the term was initially a media tool but ultimately became one. May be wrong on that but I think its close . . . .

    I personally think the term theoretically could be used to describe a genre of music, but as the 90s wore on the term was thrown around far to often to the point where it was basically comparing bands whose sound wasnt even close to being similar.

    The term is probably better suited to describe a short era of music rather than the genre itself.
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  • red mosred mos Posts: 4,953
    edited September 2010
    to me, "Grunge" is simply just a genre that represents rock music during a certain time period. Kind of like Hippies to the 1960s. Grunge had a style, long greasy hair, flannel shirts khaki pants, or ripped jeans, chain wallets, converse sneakers doc martins ect.

    Someone brought up Neil young, he is credited as the father of grunge, and yes there was some influence.

    I always loved how Krist Noveselec described "grunge." I paraphrase, he said something like it "sounded like a mildew on shower tile walls and curtains."

    I always loved that explanation. :D
    Post edited by red mos on
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  • BlahBlah Posts: 469
    red mos wrote:
    Grunge had a style, long greasy hair, flannel shirts khaki pants, or ripped jeans, chain wallets, converse sneakers doc martins ect.

    They wore flannel because of the weather in Seattle. 99 percent of rock musicians have long hair atleast at sometime. Everyone has wore ripped jeans.


    By the way did you notice you named things that have nothing to do with music? You are talking about an image not a music style.
  • red mosred mos Posts: 4,953
    edited September 2010
    oh I agree, I think a style of music and an image go hand in hand. there was disco in the 70's were people had bell bottoms and glamorous outfits, platform shows.
    The 80's transformation musically inspired the whole new wave thing.
    All bands in the "grunge" era had a distinctive sound and that to me is what defines a "genre." I agree that they dress a certain way according to the weather, but from a media, and trend standpoint in music it was part of the whole package. Music genres and images go hand in hand.
    Beach Bum wrote:
    red mos wrote:
    Grunge had a style, long greasy hair, flannel shirts khaki pants, or ripped jeans, chain wallets, converse sneakers doc martins ect.

    They wore flannel because of the weather in Seattle. 99 percent of rock musicians have long hair atleast at sometime. Everyone has wore ripped jeans.


    By the way did you notice you named things that have nothing to do with music? You are talking about an image not a music style.
    Post edited by red mos on
    PJ: 10/14/00 06/09/03 10/4/09 11/15/13 11/16/13 10/08/14
    EV Solo: 7/11/11 11/12/12 11/13/12
  • tremorstremors Posts: 8,051
    Not too bothered either way - I tend to use it much more these days than I did at the time - like asking in record fairs 'you got any grunge?'

    I only really liked PJ and Soundgarden out of that 'scene' at the time really - alongside lots of other bands artists and genres around in the early 90s. I like hearing it today though as it makes me a bit nostalgic. I can enjoy Nirvana more nowadays, but it's all just rock and roll isn't it? Even never mind the bollocks just sounds more and more like a rock n roll album as time passes I think!!
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  • MB50486MB50486 Posts: 243
    I always identified more with "gen x" than with anything else. Grunge seemed to fit that generation of no direction, disjointed, angst ridden 22 year olds. It's the way we looked, acted, smelled, and came across to others. So what if I'm 40. I'm still "grungey" in my heart
  • HeavyHandsHeavyHands Posts: 2,131
    I attempted to come to an understanding with this same topic earlier this year.

    http://community.pearljam.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=119301&hilit=+define
    "A lot more people are capable of being big out there that just don't give themselves a chance." -Stone Gossard
  • Mikee J wrote:
    As you can see, its a word that divides opinion and means different things to different people.

    For me it represents a time in my life when I lived it... 1990-1995 was the time I even called myself a grunger... long hair, knee length shorts, checked shirt and playing in a band that wholeheartedly wanted to be in Seattle.... which at the time was a long way from London England. I can actually remember telling people Grunge meant simply getting up in the morning and putting the same clothes on I wore the day before! I am sure that can also be applied to many other eras of music too......

    Very few, if any, musical movements coined their own genres or names to separate them from the rest... This period of time was no different.

    I would not worry about what other people think, just decide what it means to you and enjoy it.

    Is it still alive today? well, in my opinion not really. I put clean clothes on daily. ;)

    I was gonna reply, but then I read this and concluded I'd only change 3 or 4 words in all of it.
    ;)
    So please let me borrow your words, lad!
    just because you breathe it doesn't mean you're alive...
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